Solomon's temple: urban monument, Universal heritage

Abstract

The current literature on evangelical spaces of devotion was marked by the idea that Pentecostal buildings, in contrast to Catholic ones, were characterized by their poor durability and lack of investment. The building of megatemples by the Universal Church changes this perspective. The temples of this denomination are inserted in the public sphere and their strategies mark a new way of occupying the urban space. Their churches are a landmark, as they represent the ideas of church consolidation and permanence. More recently, the construction of Solomon's Temple will crown this process. Loaded with sensory forms, this temple will enhance IURD's religious pedagogy, producing new sensibilities and educating attention to an evangelical aesthetic based on the monumentality and spectacularization of its faith. This project aims to analyze these processes.